Working together for a world with Zero Barriers

In Bank Austria Disability Inclusion is an integral part of our business agenda. We support the inclusion of individuals with physical disabilities, learning difficulties and mental health issues. Since 2010, UniCredit Bank Austria established an in-house disability management function, headed by a full-time Disability Manager and mandated by the top management, to bring together stakeholders from all areas and coordinate all necessary efforts to address accessibility in all its dimensions. Our offers, such as the free shuttle service for people with mobility impairments, our award-winning video counseling in sign language but also the unique inclusion loan are just a few examples that go far beyond the legal requirements. For our colleagues with disabilities, we offer various services:

• All-inclusive barrier-free infrastructure including parking, barrier-free and wheelchair-accessible flooring throughout the building, contrasting glass surfaces for the visually impaired and much more.
• Best possible working conditions with full integration into the existing team. For example, workstations for employees with significant visual impairments are equipped with special readers for paper documents that are connected to the computer screen, whilst special monitor software allows additional settings for size, color and contrast.
• All medical aspects are covered by our company doctors.

The disability management function contributes also to raising employees' awareness of the needs of disabled colleagues and customers through various initiatives like "Sensing Journeys” during which employees experience the obstacles faced by colleagues with disabilities by being placed in a wheelchair, as well as through e-learning.

Our objective is to ensure the best possible integration of people with disabilities in everyday working life and as customers. For us, accessibility and inclusion are a continuous, never-ending process. Bank Austria is one of the pioneering companies in Europe when it comes to accessibility and equal rights for people with disabilities. As a bank, we recognize that it is essential to ensure credible inclusion for both employees and customers, which becomes increasingly critical as we confront new challenges arising from technological and social change. Therefore, for more than a decade now, we have maintained our "Disability Management" team, which continuously monitors these changes and successfully seeks innovative solutions to these challenges, in order to ensure the most inclusive environment possible without barriers for all our employees and customers. The disability management function coordinates an internal network of over 60 people and works closely with external experts in the disability field like “myAbility”, a consultant that supports with expertise and offers a job-platform to connect companies with disabled job seekers. This working model enables us to get a deep understanding of the everyday needs of people with disabilities and to develop products and services that are tailored to their needs, barrier-free and highly accessible. Eliminating barriers for persons with disabilities in our branches, in communications and information technology makes the accessibility to our products and services much easier for everyone.

Today, UniCredit Bank Austria employs circa 230 people with disabilities and is one of the 22% of companies in Austria that fullfil the legal requirements for employees with disabilities. We are convinced that employees with disabilities can work at 100% efficiency if they are deployed correctly and supported with the necessary aids. At Bank Austria, we employ people with disabilities not because of their disability, but because of their skills to perform in a given position for which they are most suited

UniCredit Bank Austria has been successfully addressing the inclusion of people with disabilities for more than 13 years, for both employees and customers. We are the first company in Europe to receive prestigious awards in the area of inclusion and accessibility in all three categories of the Disability Matters Award - Marketplace in 2022, Workforce in 2022, Workplace in 2018 - for our leadership in disability mainstreaming. Furthermore, Bank Austria is a founding partner of the first Technology Forum in addition to the “Zero Project Conference” that we co-organized for the very first time back in 2012. On top, for more than 10 years, Bank Austria has been an important cooperation partner and one of the main supporters of myAbility and the myAbility Business Forum, which currently has around 80 member companies and aims to anchor inclusion and accessibility in business. These cooperations enable us to continue to be at the forefront of technological developments as an innovation leader in the area of disability inclusion. Even if we offer accessibility beyond legal requirements, we constantly work to create the best working conditions for all employees with disabilities and to make our products and services as accessible as possible for our customers. For us, inclusion and accessibility are not only a question of social responsibility, but above all a question of economic necessity. As a financial services provider, we cannot afford not to be attractive to the up to 25% of the population who live with some form of disability